Not all the stores who are now selling the hard stuff are going to be so up front about the taxes put on those bottles of alcohol. Fred Meyer makes it easy to add up.

The bottle costs $17.99, the “liquor liter tax” is written underneath on the tape, $6.60, and then at the bottom is the 20.5% spirits tax $3.69, for a total of $28.28. And I wondered why my grocery bill was so high, over $10 in tax on the one item.

The good news, this new tax will help balance a budget that caused days of overtime for our elected state reps. The citizens initiative may have forced the state to sell their stores, also a nice source of income in tough times, but the tax to compensate for the sales income makes it easy because they still get the money without having to do any of the work.